Coach and Trainer Need to Work Together
Why do coaches stand by and watch trainers run practice? The travel team coach contracts with a training organization to bring a professional trainer in to run practice. She’s running great drills, putting them through their paces, explaining, correcting. Really connecting with them. The girls are laughing, playing, having a great time. Where’s the coach? […]
Why “you can be anything you want to be” may be the wrong advice
I took my 14 year old daughter to see Wicked at the Kennedy Center this week. What an incredible show. What an incredible message. Young people everywhere are walking away with the courage to take on the world. Tapping into the ‘something that’s changed within them.’ Why not throw off what holds them down? Defy […]
The Parent-Coach-Kid triangle
“As a parent, it’s your job to see the very best in your child,” a coach once told our team parents. “It’s my job to see them as they are and to help them be better.” He was right. None of us is objective about our own child. But a good coach can be. I […]
The Beautiful Game, Beautifully Played
How many of us have watched in amazement and disgust this week as Elizabeth Lambert of the University of New Mexico women’s soccer team assaulted players from Brigham Young University’s team? First, pulling a player down by her ponytail, then administering karate chops to the face of a player on a “tackle” and more. After […]
Is it “just” Growing Pains?
I was stretching with my U13 soccer team after a scrimmage. Through a chorus of moans and evident wincing one player told me, “Coach, no one in my class can touch their toes.” Her teammates nodded in agreement. Yep, tight muscles in longer limbs are natural when they’re growing. But does that mean pain is […]
For young female athletes, selection is personal
I had a disconcerting phone conversation with a friend and fellow “soccer parent” the other day. She said her daughter is “on the bubble” between the ‘A’ and ‘B’ team. They are waiting to hear which team she will be playing for. The parent told me that it is likely she won’t make the ‘A’ […]
Life on Soccer Sundays
A popular T-shirt reads: “Soccer is life. The rest is just details.” I would have worn this T-shirt when I was growing up. Athletics brought identity, order and discipline to my life. And the discipline I learned there, I brought to life’s other pursuits. Cut to today: my kids wear this T-shirt. And in spite […]
Act as if to conquer the what ifs
Tony DiCicco writes “attitude is a choice that can color any situation …and it’s contagious. …get your players to talk the talk and walk the walk…encourage them to act as if they are the players they want to be.” I’ve heard this expressed in other ‘environments.’ “Fake it til you make it’ or ‘do the […]
Abby Wambach’s Dangerous Play
Aw Abby! Abby Wambach won’t be with her team, the Washington Freedom, for their next game. She is serving a one-game suspension for a tackle she made on star opponent, Daniela, at the Freedom’s game Sunday night. As the result of Abby’s tackle, Daniela suffered knee ligament damage and a cracked tibia. Her season is […]